"Video of this in action here.. looks sweet!!!"

Nothing interrupts the flow of a good comment thread than spam. Often a completely unrelated and transparent plea to follow some link, comment spam is the irritating detritus that accumulates in an unkempt forum. To answer where the comments come from and examine the world of search engine optimization (SEO), The Kernel takes a look at the organizations behind the scenes, whose tools belch automated comments out onto lists of high-ranked targets. The piece also examines the white hat / black hat dichotomy, and how Google, which has recently cracked down on black hat SEO, could be viewed through that lens.